VETS7009 Animal Health Economics

3

Online

Core

1

Diseases play an important role in animal production and animal trade. The economic consequences of diseases on animal, herd and national levels can be considerable and need to be investigated to successfully implement and evaluate animal health programs and policies. Animal Health Economics plays an important role in the often risky decisions that need to be made about disease control. In this unit of study you will obtain the knowledge and the tools to use Animal Health Economics in your future work.

After completing Animal Health Economics, participants will be able to:

• discuss the importance of animal diseases in efficiency of animal production, consumers' perceptions of animals and animal products, and global trade;
• analyse economic problems using basic methods such as partial budgeting, cost-benefit analysis and decision analysis;
• detail the critical steps in systems analysis and choose appropriate modelling types and techniques;
• describe the uses of linear and dynamic programming, and Markov chain and Monte Carlo simulations;
• discuss the basic principles of risk analysis;
• explain the basic steps in the decision-making process and the role of risk analysis in this process;
• explain the role of decision support systems in animal health management and demonstrate their profitability;
• build and interpret spreadsheet models for economic analyses in MS EXCEL;
• discuss the importance of Animal Health Economics in decision making, implementation and evaluation of animal health programs, and policy development and implementation processes.

It is assumed you will have:

• a basic understanding of veterinary epidemiology from your former education and the Veterinary Epidemiology 1 unit in this program;
• some understanding of animal health economics (at least in broad terms) from your previous education or professional experience. If you are interested in additional information about Microeconomics, look at the following website, which has an online book: http://www.howardcc.edu/social_science/microbk.htm;
• some basic understanding of statistical and mathematical applications from your previous education;
• some skills in using MS Excel.

In particular you will need to be able to do some basic calculations with the MS Excel functions. Basic understanding of these terms was assumed during development of the study materials for the Animal Health Economics unit:

• regression analysis;
• t-test;
• probability distribution;
• continuous distribution;
• discrete distribution;
• normal distribution;
• binomial distribution;
• poisson distribution;
• conditional probability;
• matrix;
• MS Excel formulas.

An assumed knowledge quiz is available in the online class. You should undertake this quiz to make sure you have the assumed knowledge and skills to successfully undertake this unit. Your answers to this quiz will also help the facilitator to assess the general entry level skills and knowledge of the class.

Assessment of the Animal Health Economics unit of study will include:

• participation of the student in the weekly online discussions and other learning activities in the online classroom (15%);
• five online quizzes each worth 10% (50%);
• a report of about 3000 word, done in pairs (35%).

• Animal health economics: principles and applications
  Dijkhuizen, A.A. and Morris, R.S., 1997
  Post Graduate Foundation in Veterinary Science, University of Sydney
  
  Suppliers:
  Post Graduate Foundation VetBookShop
  
  

• Dr Henk Hogeveen
• Dr Monique Mourits